


But(t)… But(t)… But(t)…

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [17]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Barnes is smooth, Bucky has a mouth on him, Bucky was brought in without the associated chaos, Bucky's been watching Tony, Civil war didn't happen here, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not, Not Steve Friendly, Secret Identity, Swearing, Team Tony, moderated for my peace of mind, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 15:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18943957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: No one knows who Iron Man is, other than the bodyguard of the Avengers' main benefactor, Tony Stark. Bucky figures out the secret but not quite in the way you might think.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square T5: Identity Porn





	But(t)… But(t)… But(t)…

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to RDJ's delightful butt. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it should be declared a national treasure.

Bucky wished he could say that it was something deep and meaningful that caused him to come to the sudden realisation that Tony Stark and Iron Man were one and same person and certainly he would do so if someone asked him but it would be an outright, blatant lie. It wasn’t some turn of phrase or particular word or anything like that. It wasn’t something from his HYDRA days, from either intel or training. It wasn’t anything he could actually say out loud, not without embarrassing himself to the point where he might as well throw himself into the deepest, darkest hole the world possessed and just stay there until he died.

Because the thing that clued him into the fact that Tony Stark was Iron Man was… his butt. 

That gorgeous, cute, delectable bubble of a butt that Bucky desperately wanted to get his hands on. And maybe his teeth. And maybe something else as well. Though that was less _on_ than _in_. 

And not just Tony’s butt but also that slight sway to his hips when he walked that always had Bucky’s eyes glued on Tony’s butt. That same slight sway to the hips that Iron Man had when he walked. And it was the same sway. Bucky had watched Tony do it enough to be able to recognise it anywhere.

And now that he had this information, he honestly didn’t know what to do with it.

Because while Iron Man was a valued and well-liked member of the Avengers, Tony Stark was their barely tolerated and politely despised benefactor. Now that he knew the truth, Bucky had more than a little mental whiplash over that fact, mostly of the ‘why the hell does Stark put up with it’ kind.

Not that he barely tolerated or politely despised Tony. He actually liked the man. Unsurprisingly really, given that _Tony_ had been the one to replace the arm HYDRA had given him. (He’d hated that arm, that constant, endless reminder of what had been done to him. Tony’s arm, on the hand, was a work of art that he wore with pride and occasionally somewhat flustered delight.) 

Also, _Tony_ had been the one to help him fill in gaps in his knowledge. While it was true he’d been awake (sort of) for a fair bit of the last seventy years, he’d been… somewhat indisposed and had missed a few things. Tony had been happy to help him fill in the gaps. _Tony_ was also the one who catered to his love of all things sci-fi and futuristic. He absolutely _loved_ Tony’s workshop for example, not to mention Tony’s willingness to set aside whatever he was working on to talk science.

In actual fact, Bucky got on better with Tony than he did with Iron Man. Not that he disliked Iron Man but Iron Man was… well, was Stevie’s friend. Not that he disliked Stevie either. He was pretty sure he was genetically incapable of that. But… Stevie wasn’t the man he remembered. Stevie, like himself, had changed. The difference between them was that he was willing to admit that, Stevie still thought of himself as just that small, scrawny kid from Brooklyn and _that_ hadn’t been true for a long time.

“Hey, Boo Bear, what’s got you all frowny and brooding?”

Bucky gave a start then hissed as that made his arm jerk. Tony was almost wrist deep in his arm at the moment, trying to get at some loose wiring and moving it didn’t help matters.

“Sorry,” he muttered as he settled himself again, giving Tony an apologetic look to go along with the word.

“I think that hurt you more than it did me,” Tony said dryly. “But seriously, you had your Resting Murder Face going there and you haven’t been there for a while now.”

Bucky sighed and stared down at the inner mechanism of his arm for a moment. He didn’t often do that because it made him feel a little weird but in truth, his thoughts were more directed inward than on what the inside of his arm looked like.

“If I say something,” he began slowly. “Will you promise me a couple of things?”

Tony gave him a strange look. “What kind of things?”

“That you won’t run and hide from me and that you won’t insult me by lying to me.”

Tony actually stopped what he was doing and sat back. He gave Bucky a long, steady look as he turned those two requests over in his mind.

“Is… is this to do with Howard…?”

Bucky shook his head. “No!” He drew in a deep breath then let it out again. “No, it’s not that.”

His involvement in the murder of Howard and Maria Stark had been the first thing he’d confessed when he’d come face to face with Tony Stark. In fact, he’d done it over Stevie’s attempts to silence him and that… well, that had gone about as well as might be expected. Because right after Bucky’s confession had sunk in to Tony’s mind, so too had Stevie’s attempts to stop him and the (very true) implications of what that meant.

Things had been… ugly for a while after that. Not only had Iron Man made himself unavailable for mission for the foreseeable future but Tony had cut off funding for a while, until he had, as he’d put it in a terse and impolite email, ‘recouped the losses incurred by Rogers using _my_ money and _my_ tech to search for the _murderer_ of my parents’. Stevie had complained right up until Natalia had told him to put a sock in it in no uncertain terms. She’d read him the riot act then and they’d hunkered down on what funding they could manage between them until Natalia had finally managed to beat into Stevie’s thick skull just what a dick move that had been and he’d gone and very contritely apologised. Natalia had gone with him to make sure it was a proper apology and not the sort of ham-fisted thing Bucky remembered him trying a few times back in the day.

It must have been good enough though because the end result had been a restoration of funding, albeit at a lower level, and Iron Man being available once again. It had also resulted in Bucky receiving a request to meet with Tony. Stevie hadn’t wanted him to go but Bucky hadn’t hesitated. It had been awkward as all hell but Tony had been… surprisingly kind for someone who was a victim of Bucky’s time with HYDRA. It had taken a long time before they were comfortable with the idea of being friends but in Bucky’s opinion, it had been worth all the time and effort. It had even been worth putting up with the shit the Avengers spewed about Stark, though one of these days he was going to have to take a page out of Natalia’s book and beat a few things into Stevie’s head about his apology being worthless if he continued to bite the hand that feeds... and allowed the others to do the same because despite that whole mess being Stevie’s fault, they all blamed Tony, idiots that they were.

“What then?” Tony asked warily, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Do you promise?” Bucky countered.

Tony hesitated for a long moment then nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Bucky chewed on his bottom lip for a moment then he metaphorically squared his shoulders. (He’d have done it literally but… Tony was wrist deep in his arm right now.)

“You’re Iron Man.”

It wasn’t a question because Bucky was sure of it. He knew. It was a fact. He just didn’t know why Tony hid it.

For his part, Tony paled and Bucky could see that he wanted to yank his hand out of his arm and run and hide, that he wanted to lie, but he’d made that promise and like Bucky, he took promises seriously. Finally he sighed and his shoulders bowed with defeat.

“Yes.”

Bucky smiled and what came out of his mouth next wasn’t what he’d intended, which had been something supportive and complimentary, but perhaps might have been better. “Cool.”

Tony’s head shot up and he stared at Bucky in disbelief. “What?”

“Cool,” Bucky repeated, now outright grinning. He felt relief that Tony had trusted him with this and a sort of wild delight that he knew and nobody else did. “How much do you think we could fuck around with that without the others guessing?”

Now Tony was just gaping at him then he blinked several times. He looked like his entire brain had blue-screened and Bucky felt a sort of stupid pride in that because he knew it was extremely difficult to take Tony’s brain offline in any significant way. “What?” he said faintly. “How?”

“How’d I guess?” Tony nodded and Bucky continued. “Well… I could come up with all sorts of things but they’d all be lies.”

Tony steadied a little and he managed a glare. It wasn’t much of a glare, still shot through with disbelief, worry, confusion and even a little fear, but it was more like normal Tony and that made Bucky’s grin get a little wider, even as he could feel his cheeks getting warm and knew he must be blushing.

“It was your butt,” he admitted. “That really cute butt of yours and how it looks when you walk.”

Tony started blushing now and then his eyes narrowed and a hint of anger grew in them. “Are you fucking with me?”

“Not in the slightest, doll,” Bucky said. “I mean, I’m about ready to wish the earth would open up and swallow me but… I’m not fucking with you.” He paused and then, prompted by that blush and the lack of protest or complaint, his mouth ran completely away from his brain’s control. “I would kinda like to fuck you though.”

Tony’s blush grew and his eyes were wide and almost doe-like. Bucky closed his eyes as he wrestled his traitorous mouth under control and clapped his flesh and bone hand over his eyes.

“Okay, I’m a dick and can we go back to the start of this conversation and try again?” he said faintly.

There was more silence from Tony then came a quiet, “No.”

Bucky’s hand dropped and he opened his eyes. Tony didn’t look angry. He looked a little confused and a lot hesitant but there was also a dash of hope and, miracle of miracle, amusement and lust mixed in there as well.

“No?”

“No.” Tony licked his lips. “I… kind of like where this conversation has gone. I mean, it’s been a wild ride from beginning to right now but… it’s… good?”

Bucky smile returned, now full of warmth and promise. “Yeah?”

Tony returned the smile and nodded. “My butt, huh?” he said, a little bit of mischief creeping in. “I’ll admit it’s a nice butt and I work hard at keeping it that way but I actually never thought it would give my secret identity away.”

“I have an unfair advantage. I watch it a lot,” Bucky replied. “Like, _a lot_ a lot.”

Tony now looked amused. “So it seems.” He nodded to the arm that was still open and need of repair. “Maybe after I finish this, we can discuss your obsession with my butt in more detail.”

“I’d like that.”

Tony turned his attention back to the mechanics of the arm. “And maybe… we can talk about that trolling you mentioned as well.”

Bucky laughed and shifted so that he was a little bit closer to Tony. He knew the upcoming conversation was going to involve a lot more than just talking about Tony’s butt and trolling the Avengers but he had a lot of confidence now that he was pretty sure he was going to like the outcome.


End file.
